SCC students entered a room illuminated with dark blue hues. Flowing along its aisles was the pipeline of suited college students, dressed up in something more than pajama pants and— looking for their assigned seating based on their states. These participants were ecstatic to see old frenemies, that soon to be their competitors. Photos were taken. Hugs were given. Chatter synchronized as the countdown descended to 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. More voices chanted along. 5. 4. 3. 2. All minds focused on 1, and each of the states’ representatives had one goal — win nationals and bring the glass home.

A couple of months back, all these students competed in their respective regions. Shoreline Community College hosted the Pacific NorthWest Regional Conference on the 23rd and 24th of February 2024 and won 25 spots to the nationals in the Collegiate International Career Development Conference (CICDC) of Texas. Leo Novsky, the involved advisor of Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), explained that, “the students stepped up … I didn’t run the conference;, the students ran the conference,” in addition to competing in their respective categories.

“It is a year of rebuilding – coming from the pandemic, we only got two members … Then we got up to 16 people to go to regional … and 8 people to the national conference,” described Aidan Ma, the current president of DECA SCC. “The leadership team [this year] has shown relentless hard work. We doubled the size of club members and [are] triple-ing the size for the competitor team going to the national conference.”

Amidst the stress of the conference, Shoreline Community College mirrored the networking opportunities given by DECA Nationals. According to one of the winners at Bellevue College, Ezhile Karthikeyan, “DECA can be daunting at times … but the community … portrayed by everyone there made all the difference,” she applauded. “The impromptu karaoke.. added to the fun vibrancy that Shoreline has, [and] gave us an opportunity to relax and have fun during the competition.”

Competing in both prepared and unprepared, Chien Ju Hsieh trained both her categories by, “getting to learn more about the business phrases and terminology in order to better understand the case study.” Upon receiving 1st place ion the State Conference, Hsieh explained that they prepared their own business research competition by, “fulfilling the missing parts that the judges from the regional competition suggested. We interviewed employees from the business that we are studying and got a better picture of the hiring process of it.”

After the Regional Conference, the student’s’ fight wasn’t over yet. Ma’s leadership team had to place grant requests to the campus to get the funds needed for the National Conference in DECA. Shoreline Community College fully funded the team’s efforts., “DECA enriches educational programming at Shoreline Community College … providing hands-on experiences in business, marketing, finance, and entrepreneurship,” explained Shanon Ehmke-Reedy, acting Executive Dean of Business, Communication Studies, & Social Science.

Upon attending ICDC Texas, Shoreline Community College students stepped out of their comfort zones and tested their abilities among other colleges and 4-year institutions. Candidates from Shoreline CC range from the youngest age of 16 to people approaching their 40s, tackling different interests of categories. Such diversity is expressed throughout other schools as well. Suzzane Grugger, a faculty of Shoreline CC who stepped into the role for advising during the Nationals, explained that “students who were unsure about going to Nationals really stepped up their game and were well supported by the leaders of DECA (SCC).”

Throughout the 5 days of ICDC, DECA Nationals fully replicated a professional conference, sprinkling youth vibrancy among the revolutionary speakers from Google, Dell, Enterprise, and other sponsoring companies. The best gift given to students was to be in the blue ballroom packed with uncountable experiences, opening their minds to endless innovation as they connected with students from other Higher-Ed institutions.

By the end, Shoreline Community College received a second-place glass from the Entrepreneurship: Starting a Business category, earned by the pair, Collin Kepler and Taqieldin Shaker. “One thing that differentiated me from other people is that I’m actually doing what I said I’m doing … the plan I was presenting was an actual plan I put into motion … That’s what makes it even more special to me — I’m not just doing something from school. I’m doing something for my life,” explained Kepler.

According to Reedy, “DECA help build skills such as critical thinking, communication, leadership and teamwork. These are all in demand skills in the workforce. ” “Through competitive events, DECA equips students with knowledge and experiences that complement classroom learning at Shoreline.”

“This year was a really crucial year for DECA. Last year was the first one that we really emerged from COVID, and we had a great start, but getting a good start was not enough … I really feel like this year Shoreline DECA has really emerged not just as a viable program, but actually as a winning program,” Novsky detailed.

“If you want to go out of your comfort-zones and make actual beneficial experiences [and], meet beneficial people, then you should do DECA … because DECA would put you in those situations,” Kepler added, “You should join DECA if you actually want to do something.”